Reed-Solomon codes are the invisible guardians of our digital world. Powering everything from CDs, phone calls and QR codes to space communications with their error-correcting abilities. But here’s the twist : They reveal an intriguing mathematical phenomenon called the Proximity Gap, creating a mismatch between what we can detect locally versus correct globally.

In fact, this gap exposes weaknesses in current algorithms, points to smarter verification methods and exhibits hidden boundaries of what codes can achieve.

Through this presentation, we will break down real-world examples where the proximity gap appears, recent results which explain its behavior, and surprising applications in cryptography.

Dive into the paradox of coding theory and discover how a simple algebraic property redefines the boundaries of error correction. All it takes is 45 minutes to crack the code.